The Confederation is rising from its ashes

After a century and a half, the crushed Confederation is back. Texas is leading the movement. The Southern states are, once more, asserting their state rights. They are no longer interested in their right to leave the Union. They are just revising their place in the Union. Instead of defending their right to slavery, they are protecting the life of the unborn. Instead of fighting for a lost cause, they are now acting on high moral grounds. They will no longer allow the abortionists to impose their immorality on those who reject it. Thus they are declaring defunct the Supreme Court decision in Roe v Wade that legalized abortion.

What is at stake here is the autonomy of the states from the federal government. Are the states free states, or are they like minors under the guardianship of the federal government? Are they administrative subdivisions of the federal government, or are they, as is the case in the European Union, sovereign states? The most obvious answer to this question is that they are somewhere in between those extremes.

Before the Constitution, the thirteen states were like the European states. After the Constitution was adopted, however, they lost a great deal of their autonomy. This is what the Anti-Federalists objected to before the new Constitution was adopted. In the end, the Federalists won the debate and the Constitution was ratified. The hawks won and the doves lost. But this was only a temporary victory. The southern states rebelled against this usurpation of power and decided to secede. War decided otherwise. So the Constitution as we know it today is the product of force, not of constitutional agreement. Now without mutual agreement, there is no valid union. This is why I declare that the American Union stands on a big fault. Any earthquake can destroy it.

Now the earthquake that is shaking the Union is mild. It is limited to the southern states’ right to disagree with the Supreme Court on an important decision. This is good, because it demystifies the Supreme Court and the authority of the federal government. This is like demystifying the authority of Rome in relation to the Christian world. What the Reformation did in relation to church authority is welcome and needed in relation to federal authority. In a democratic system, no authority is absolute.

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Democracy is defined as government with the consent of the governed. This translates as federal government with the consent of the states.